At a Maharishi Vedic City, City Council meeting held in February 2016, Dr. Kent Boyum reported on a recent meeting he attended in Des Moines with State Legislators to address improvements needed in testing for pesticide drift. A coalition from the Iowa Farmer’s Union, Pesticide Action Network and the Iowa Organics Association, on which Dr. Boyum serves as a board member, made the presentation. They also submitted Senate Bill number 3125 to the Environmental Subcommittee, a bill to address inefficiency in response times and in reporting methods for pesticide drift concerns, by the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship, who took 8 months to return results from an incident involving a crop duster in Maharishi Vedic City in 2013. The bill would require faster test turn around, use of additional agencies for testing, and higher fines for violators. The bill is in the appropriations track; it passed the subcommittee and is no longer a “study bill”. It is now known as SF 2290, if you would like to follow it.

This is the latest effort by Dr. Boyum, on behalf of Maharishi Vedic City, to protect the health and well being of our community from poisonous agriculture practices. Since 2003 he has been responsible for maintaining the certified organic status of agriculture land in the City. He annually registers the entire City on the IDALS sensitive crops registry. He was involved in the successful challenge to the construction of a CAFO next to the City. He has been proactive as the liaison to the Fairfield Airport in reporting violations by crop dusters. He has reported violations to the FAA, resulting in reprimands to several pilots. He even requested of the FAA a “no fly” zone over the City.

We are very fortunate to have Dr. Boyum as an employee of Maharishi Vedic City.